Impressions of the past: print culture and typography in South Asia

Impressions of the past: print culture and typography in South Asia

Graham Shaw

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With a foreword by Swapan Chakravortyand an afterword by Fiona Ross

About the book

This book brings together over three decades of research by one of the foremost historians and bibliographers of early South Asian printing. In twenty-nine essays the book argues for, and provides, rigorous groundwork for book history and typographic research in various languages and scripts of India.

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The twenty-nine essays collected in this book represent a broad range of historical research – extending over detailed examinations of key personalities, presses, and processes related to early printing in the Indian subcontinent as well as activities in the governmental and evangelical realms and their effects in the creative and public spheres. The essays have been newly revised, and augmented with numerous illustrations of the material discussed within them for the first time. It is hoped that beside making foundational research in the field more widely accessible, the book will provide a much-needed glimpse of the range of original artefacts from early printing activities in various Indian scripts.

Impressions of the past: print culture and typography in the Indian subcontinent

GRAHAM SHAW

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FROM THE FOREWORD

Graham Shaw belongs to the rare breed of writers who are able to communicate the thrill of discovery and travel that bibliography and book history bring to the researcher.

This is the special gift that has enabled Shaw to make the smooth transition from bibliographical research to the history of printing in South Asia, and to the larger dimensions of book history in the region – a stupendous range stretching from typography in countless scripts to the sociology of dissemination and reception of texts. […] All readers and admirers of Shaw would feel grateful for this collection.

Swapan Chakravorty

Swapan Chakravorty is Distinguished Professor in the Humanities at the Presidency University, Kolkata and Head Librarian, National Library of India. Kolkata and Head Librarian, National Library of India. Swapan Chakravorty is Distinguished Professor in the Humanities at the Presidency University, Kolkata and Head Librarian, National Library of India. Kolkata and Head Librarian, National Library of India.

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Read the book’s first chapter: A revised outline of early South Asian printing

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FROM THE AFTERWORD

There is no doubt that these essays will fulfil Graham Shaw’s hope that they ‘act as a stimulus to new lines of investigation’.

Aside from their highly informative detailed content they serve to underline the importance of critically informed and grounded historical enquiry, pointing to many worthwhile but as yet unexplored areas of research. Above all, this collection of essays celebrates precisely what Graham in a different context has described as ‘the multiplicity of language-based regional print cultures’. In his own particularly apposite words: long live non-Latin scripts!

Fiona Ross

Fiona Ross is a type designer, lecturer, and Curator, Non-Latin in the Humanities at the Presidency University, Kolkata and Head Librarian, National Library of India. Kolkata and Head Librarian, National Library of India. Fiona Ross is a type designer, lecturer, and Curator, Non-Latin in the Humanities at the Presidency University, Kolkata and Head Librarian, National Library of India. Kolkata and Head Librarian.

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About the author

Graham Shaw is a Senior Research Fellow of the Institute of English Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London. He was formerly Head of the Asia, Pacific, and Africa Collections at the British Library. Among his many achievements are leading the ‘Collect Britain’ project, the British Library’s largest digitisation initiative at that time, and devising and directing the Endangered Archives Programme for its first five years.

In 2010 Graham Shaw retired from the British Library, having been Head of the Library’s Asia, Pacific, and Africa Collections (APAC) for over twenty years. Trained as an Indologist, he graduated in Hindi and Sanskrit in 1969 from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (SOAS).
As Head of APAC, he managed many international partnerships and projects, with the National Libraries of Iraq, Iran, India, Indonesia and China, the National Archives of India, the National Documentation Centre, Pakistan, the King Faisal Centre for Research and Islamic Studies, Riyadh, the University of Chicago Library, and the University of Washington (Early Buddhist Manuscripts Project). In 2003 he led the Library’s then largest digitization project ‘Collect Britain’, and in 2005 developed the Endangered Archives Programme funded by Arcadia. In 2007 he was Lead Curator of the Library’s major exhibition, ‘Sacred’, exploring the book traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
For the past thirty years he has researched the history of printing and publishing in South Asia, from the 16th to the 20th centuries. His published works include Printing in Calcutta to 1800 and The South Asia and Burma Retrospective Bibliography (SABREB): Stage-1, 1556–1800.

A conversation with Graham Shaw about books, history, and avenues of research conversation with Graham Shaw about books, history, and avenues of research conversation with Graham Shaw about books, history, and avenues of research

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NOTE ON PRODUCTION

The book was designed and typeset by Vaibhav Singh. It was printed in Amsterdam by Jan de Jong. The pages were bound at Boekbinderij Van Waarden in Zaandam. Section-sewn and bound in cold glue, the Van Waarden Integraal binding method combines ‘all of the advantages of the well-known Integral or Dutch flexible cover and the looks of a classic case bound book’. The result is a durable, functional publication, a book that opens flat, giving due respect to its contents and providing a pleasant reading experience.

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BOOK DETAILS

Impressions of the past: print culture and typography in the Indian subcontinent